There are 2 kinds of electronic stimulation. I've used both kinds for different injuries. I had decent results from both. TENS (Transcutaneous Electronic Nerve Stimulation) is used for pain relief. I used this for back pain, and it sounds like this is what the OP's mother has. It doesn't cause muscle growth.

The other type is EMS (or Russian-stim) that supposedly improves your muscles. I used this type of machine with a physical therapist to exercise one specific muscle in my leg to recover from a knee injury. The stimulation would cause one piece of my quad (as opposed to all 4) to contract and release repeatedly until failure to get all of the parts of my quad to be equally strong. This seemed to work, but I also had about 50 minutes of stretching and exercise that went with it.

What I've heard about the "better than steroids" claim is that the Russian athletes of yore would attach an EMS to several muscle groups while they were sleeping so that they were getting exercise all night. No idea if this is true, but I would imagine it would really suck...it's a fairly unpleasant thing to have it on just one muscle, so I can't imagine sleeping with dozens of them on. Also, I think it ignores the fact that your muscles need rest to grow, so if you exercise them all night, you would never get rest.

I've thought about trying it out, but I would hate to waste $500 on one if it didn't work. And I'm guessing it either doesn't work, or is such a pain in the ass that I would never use it. Plus, $500 would probably buy a lot of steroids.

-Todd

Yeah my mom uses a TENS machine and I have hooked it up before and it is great for working out minor mucsle cramps and such ....but I think your right for the price of the machine you could get a decent cycle of roids and know your going to get stronger.